Overload
by ChocoLalaLandGirl
Summary: I'M BACK!  What is it like to have so much power...you really fell EVERYTHING? How much of a burden could it be to hold onto it?   I suck at titles and summary's no good either. Read first chapter to figure it out.
1. Just a Millisecond

**Chapter 1~Just a Millisecond**

I sighed and relaxed against the well-known metal bars behind me. How, I had to wonder, and when did this become a normal pattern? The thought was shrugged off as I skimmed over the cards held in my gloved hand.

"Hey Egghead, where does the queen of diamonds go?"

"What?" Doctor Eggman turned confusedly from his surveillance monitor and eyed me inquisitively.

"You know, solitaire? Where do you put the queen of diamonds?"

"What are you-" the doctor groaned, "Decoe, Bocoe, take that deck of cards!"

"Aw, but now I'll get bored!" I whined, handing over the deck reluctantly.

"Good! Sonic should be here any minute to jump in and save you, but until then you can just deal with the dullness of being held captive!"

"Hah, how does that seem normal?" I asked, mostly to myself as Eggman turned back to the wall of screens. What he didn't notice, though, was the blue streak the zipped across it during my momentary distraction.

It was actually a normal daily activity for me to be captured my Eggman, which should have seemed weird, but I guess I was used to it by now. Besides, I always got the chance to be with Sonic when he came to rescue me. It was always the same thing; I'd be the bait to lure Sonic in so Eggman could test out his newest, faster reacting laser or bomb or whatever! Sonic always knew it was a trap, but he had yet to fall into one that he couldn't get back out of. The problem was the there was no laser or trap door or cage or anything that was fast or powerful enough to catch him.

I heard the screeching of metal and saw a red hot spot appear on the door just before Sonic broke through it with his signature spin. Eggman scowled momentarily but recovered quickly with is horribly annoying cackle.

"Sonic the hedgehog, what a pleasant surprise! As always, you've fallen right into my trap, OO-ho-ho!" Eggman laughed and I had to roll my eyes and sit up impatiently, crossing my arms. Of course he'd have to monologue for a good few minutes before I could just get out of here with Sonic.

"Nice to see you too," Sonic joked, shooting me a smile to which I tried my hardest not to smile back at.

Not that it really mattered at this point, but we were _supposed_ to be on a date right about now. Sonic was more likely to end up saving me-again-then making a date anyway, so I almost involuntarily forgot and smiled back. _Just_ almost.

"So what's new?" Sonic asked to no one in particular, apparently ready to get Eggman's newest speech about how _this laser was sure to "blow him away" _just like the last few hundred.

"Well I'm so glad you asked! I've created this new laser to-blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah..." I rolled my eyes and began to tune out all of the doctor's rambling gibberish and focus on the only good thing that came out of getting captured; Sonic.

I used to feel guilty every time Sonic had to put himself in danger just to come to my rescue, but now it just seemed routine, like chasing him down and demanding a date or, when I was particularly desperate feeling, marriage. It was no longer anything special; just routine. I felt no guilt because I knew for a fact Eggman would never find anything powerful enough to defeat Sonic. Nothing was that powerful other than a chaos emerald, which were being safely guarded by Sonic and Tails.

I sighed, letting my sights fall on Sonic, standing as brave tall and strong as ever, but with the slight look of boredom mixed with the aura of nostalgia on his face. It was normal for him too. Nothing to worry about.

That's what I thought up until my eyes homed in on a new subject. It was almost all the way concealed in the large machine that would generate power for the laser Eggman created. The laser was set up pointed directly at Sonic, no more than a few feet away from him and just one foot more away from me. He knew but didn't care, thinking he'd be more than fast enough to move _after_ Eggman had pressed the button clenches in his hand. What he didn't know was that there was a dim blueish glow sneaking through the fiber glass of the machine. What he didn't see was the chaos emerald loaded in the laser, ready to be shot at him full force.

My heart stopped and I swear I would have passed out right then and there, but my subconscious kept me upright until I regained the usage of words and actions. Now it was time for me to step in or watch Sonic be shot dead right in front of me. Trying to save me.

"SONIC!" I shouted, cutting Eggman off mid-ramble.

Okay, so in retrospect, yelling out that I knew what was going on probably wasn't the best idea, but I was completely and irrationally panicking, and with any luck it could take Eggman a moment of doing the same before he pressed the button. One millisecond; that was all it took. I pulled out my hammer and easily bent apart the bars in the little cage. Not that I couldn't have done that sooner, but that was a plan b, since it would be much more efficient to just wait for Sonic.

"He has a chaos emerald powering the laser," I exclaimed, still trying to stop my heart from beating so fast it might explode.

Sonic's eyes widened in shock as he tried to process my announcement and mine darted over to Eggman, who looked just as dumbstruck. Unfortunately, he recovered sooner than Sonic as he shook it off and his finger crept towards the button in his large hand. It would only take a millisecond.

I threw the hammer out in front of me, not necessarily aiming but hoping that I'd get lucky and it would push the laser to aim in a different direction. Without stopping the burst of adrenaline and fear, I lunged towards Sonic with the intention to push us both out of the way. A flash of light escaped from the laser, pointed right between us now, but it traveled all the way across the room in less time than it took for me to complete my jump. In the same amount of time it took me to travel two inches in his direction, the beam made contact with me.

It only took a millisecond.

I felt the vibration of energy shoot through my body and I was only vaguely away of the hard impact I made against the wall and eventually the floor. It only took a millisecond.

My eyes were open but I saw spikes of light began to blur my vision until all I could see was nothing. I blinked and tried to see, but even blinking sent huge waves of pain coursing through me. I felt my body shaking and seizing as I tried to contain all the feeling. It was like so much energy had been put in me all at once and there was no way to release it. Like an electrical shock that just kept getting worse rather than subsiding.

The sounds of the room were replaced by the static jolting sounds of the electricity overcoming my body. I felt myself go numb on the outside even if I felt too much inside. Too much energy, shocking me from my core. It only took a millisecond, a painfully slow millisecond, but I knew it was only that, and I felt myself slowly returning to reality.

The room blurred back into existence through the blinding light around me and the electricity began to spread out so that I was more aware of it in sections, particularly two blips of immense energy overcoming my shoulders. I began to hear the sounds around me again as everything became crisper and more precise.

"_Amy...Amy?" _it was a blurred version of Sonic's voice, gradually pulling me back to reality.

"You're...er-in..." I tried to make my mouth form words as I gradually perceived what was going on.

Sonic sat over me with his hands holding me up in a sitting position, his eyes widening as I spoke. "What?" he asked so quietly that if my hearing hadn't come fully back yet I wouldn't have noticed.

I blinked one more time and regained full consciousness, though still uncontrollable pulsating with the contained energy. "You're...hurting me," I said, as if still unsure myself.

Sonic automatically let go of my shoulders and backed away just a half inch. What concerned me, though, was that the hot spots of energy burning in my shoulders left with his hands. And all it took was a millisecond.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice full of concern and his eyes full of hurt.

I didn't answer as another wave of pain swept over me and I had to focus very hard to maintain consciousness."What..." I began but couldn't find the strength to finish. Actually, it was more like I had too much strength to finish and I knew that if I opened my mouth again I'd only be able to scream, so I bit down hard on my lip to keep it tucked inside of me.

"The chaos emerald is gone," Eggman stated from across the room, sounding more shocked than accomplished.

"What's going on? What did you do to her?" Sonic growled defensively, turning swiftly to the doctor.

After quickly doing a scan of his machine, Eggman turned to us with a scarred expression. Sonic jumped up and I could tell he was barely refraining from going at him.

"My laser was powered by a chaos emerald," Eggman began explaining, "but it's no longer in the machine! It must have exploded or something and released the energy in its beam!"

"What will that, or rather _has_ that done?" Sonic asked through gritted teeth.

With a nervous expression, Eggman slowly came three steps closer and held out a little device and pointed it directly at me. His eyes widened as it gave a little beep. "It couldn't have..."

"WHAT?" Sonic demanded.

"From what I can gather, the energy from the emerald was indeed released through the laser and now it's...it's been transferred to...her," he said, pointing one of his fingers dead at me, eyes wide in shock and horror.

"It can't...NO! Amy, we need to get you to see Tails now. Are you okay?" I nodded, hoping to be at least slightly convincing and winced noticeably as he slid his arms under me and lifted me up.

With his touch came another jolt of electricity and I found it hard to remain still and not jerk with the waves of energy. He noticed my flinch and sped out of the tower all together before looking me dead in the eye.

"What is it, Amy?" he asked, stopping momentarily outside.

"Nothing," I lied, not wanting to say that his touch felt like a burning burst of electricity, and not the "sparks flying" kind you hear about in books or TV; I'd felt that before with him and _that_ didn't hurt.

"I'm going to get you to Tails and he'll do an analysis, is that okay?"

"Yes," I said through my half-closed mouth, still trying to fight the urge to scream.

At his super sonic speed racing so quickly across the countryside to get to Tails, it only took a millisecond.

Everything hurt; like the same sort of bursts of electricity with everything but just in different levels of intensity. Sonic's grasp and every single leaf or bug that collided with my face as he ran, so small that I never would've noticed them at all before but now so visibly painful. When we got there, Sonic burst through the doors and immediately called for Tails, who came frantically up the stairs from his workshop in the basement.

"This can't be good," Tails mumbled as he saw Sonic holding me and the pained expression I was sure to be wearing.

"Will you wait here a second Ames?" Sonic asked and I nodded as he set me down on the sofa. It was the first time anything had ever felt better than his arms to me, but the relief was lost in the cloud of worry in my head.

I curled into a tight ball as Sonic went over what had happened with Tails, who listened intently with a worried expression and his eyes stealing glances in my direction every few seconds. I held my knees against my chest and tightened my body in attempt to stop the throbbing jolts still seizing through me. I sat like this in a feeble sort of attempt at containing the energy ravaging my form, even though I knew it could neither be contained nor released.

"Will you let me do a scan?" I looked up to see Tails standing over me now, trying to look comforting but I could tell he was nervous as well. "Amy? Can I do a really quick scan so I can figure out what's going on?" he repeated.

I nodded and Sonic stepped over, about to pick me up again when I held up my hand to stop him. "Please let me walk," I said and, though slightly taken aback, Sonic agreed and I stood up and followed Tails.

I was shaking noticeably, but I knew it would only cause another spark of pain to let Sonic carry me. Walking was possible enough until we reached the room with all of Tails's examination equipment. Even through the thick soles of my shoes, I felt a huge rush of electricity shoot up from the metal floor the second I touched it.

"Ah!" I yelled out loud and jumped back, almost falling onto the floor, but Sonic caught me. With the jolt of pain from his touch, I jumped back forward so I was standing just between him and the offending metal ground.

"What is it?" Tails and Sonic both asked as Sonic took a step back when I jumped away from him.

"I'm sorry, just the-the..." I didn't know how to say it. Well, actually I did, but I didn't _feel_ like just blurting out that "Sonic and the floor shocked me" for fear they might just deduce me as insane.

"Don't be sorry about it! What happened though?" Sonic asked, taking a half step cautiously towards me when I held up my hand to stop him again.

"The...it's just...it hurts." I said.

"What hurts?" Sonic asked and I shook my head, not wanting to say anything.

"You have to tell us, Amy, so I can do an analysis," Tails said and I sighed in defeat.

"Everything. The metal floor and when you touched me," a turned to Sonic and then experimentally reached out towards Tails, gingerly touching his arm and quickly retracting as I felt the shock against him too. "Did you feel that?"

"Feel what?" the fox asked, now concerned.

"It's like when you're staticy and you touch someone and you both get shocked, only it's about a thousand times worse," I explained, hoping I didn't sound completely mental. "When I touched the floor there it was about a thousand times worse that _that_."

Sonic eyed Tails, who looked slightly dismayed. "Can Sonic carry you just across the metal floor?" the fox asked, avoiding Sonic's incredulous gaze.

"Tails..." Sonic began.

"Yes, that's okay," I said, bracing myself for the jolt as Sonic hesitantly scooped me up and sped past Tails in the doorway and over to the examination table.

"Don't put her on the metal," Tails instructed, pointing to a plastic and cloth rolling chair near the corner.

Sonic promptly set me down there and followed Tails, continuing to ask what was going on as the fox began starting up all the machines and equipment in the room.

"Tails, what's going on?" he asked quietly, I guess just trying not to worry me.

"I need to do some tests before I say anything for certain but..." Tails trailed off under his breath.

"But what?" I joined in and they both looked over to me. "What do you _think_ is going on?"

"Well, from what I heard that Eggman said..." Tails sighed, "I _think_ that the chaos emerald exploded in the laser and it, rather than the actual beam, was shot at you. I think you have the chaos emerald's energy trapped inside you."

I bit my tongue, trying not to freak out. It was just a theory, after all. I mean, I knew how powerful a chaos emerald, just one alone, was and...that would explain the vibrating waves of electricity I felt pounding through me but...no! It was just a theory and I refused to believe it, no matter how evident it may have seemed, until it was a cold hard proven FACT!

…

It hurt more as a fact than it did as a theory. I had the chaos energy inside of me, but I wouldn't be able to get it out. Whenever I touched something that had energy of any kind, whether it was the vibrating atoms in a metal or the photosynthetic energy of a plant or even the constant energy flowing through someone's body, I felt it. Electrical items would shock more whereas everything else was like a jolt of energy that was too hard to describe as anything but a burning sort of shock.

It was amazing, really, to touch the metal table and feel the friction of every atom moving and working, even if it hurt like hell. Tails explained it in great detail after comparing my energy readings with that of both an inactive and active chaos emerald. Mine was somewhere in between, as the energy was kept in motion flowing through me but not being necessarily called upon.

And it was awful.

I couldn't touch _anything_ without feeling the full impact of it! I couldn't do anything or move in any way without activating the energy infinitesimally more with every movement I made, causing an even bigger explosion of pain when I touched something else.

If you want the scientific specifics, each chaos emerald, when inactive, contained 60,000 amperes of energy. When fully active, but not with the help of any other emeralds causing a chaos reaction, a single emerald could generate up to 3 billion amps of energy! With the average percentage of active energy within me when I was making little to no movement at about 1.8 billion amps, that made for approximately 17,370,000,000,000,000 (seventeen quintillion three hundred seventy quadrillion) electrons _worth_ of energy inside of me. And that was all just potential energy, meaning that I wasn't and COULDN'T use any of it!

I was shaking the whole time I sat there and Tails explained what was going on, but no longer from fear rather than the uncontainable energy trying to burst out of me. I couldn't move and yet I couldn't sit still.

"Is there anyway to..." I broke off, afraid to ask the rest when I saw Tails's face fall.

"I don't know," he admitted. "From what I can tell, the chaos energy has dispersed throughout your whole body by now and it would be very hard to gather it all back to one spot, and even harder to remove it if there was a way. I can assure you, though, that I'll do everything I can to figure out a way to do it."

I sighed, still trying to grasp the whole reality of all this. My eyes drifted to Sonic who seemed to be deep in thought on the far side of the room. He seemed worrisome, even slightly angry, but I didn't blame him at all.

For me it was scary and overwhelming, I could tell for Tails it was frustrating, not knowing how to deal with it or how exactly it was even possible, but Sonic...I know he would feel responsible, whether or not it had been his fault, and angry at Eggman for causing this catastrophe in the first place. And, knowing Sonic, he'd be mad at me for interfering with something that he could have handled it I'd taken the rational approach and discretely warned him rather than causing Eggman to panic and fire right away.

I didn't regret preventing Sonic from taking the blow, but... If only I'd stopped to think before I jumped out there. It would've only take a millisecond...

**Hello everybody! I'm back with a new story! I finally got a laptop and along with it, the freedom to write what and as I please! So yeah, that's pretty damn epic! And just so you all know (if any of your read my last story "If You Seek Amy" and saw my note for the "next story" at the end) I will still try to carry out that idea. It's changed a lot in my head since I first though of it, so now it's all a matter of revising it to fit the new and improved plot (which, with me sadly, may take a while). So this is kind of a filler for until I get that up and going! :D**

**I don't exactly remember where I got the idea for this one (honestly I think it may have been while reading my Chemistry lesson on electrical charges) but here it is! I'll warn you now that it probably won't be all too long, but I've already written the next couple of chapters and I'd love to get those out as soon as I get a good idea of whose reading this anyway! (And I can only do that if your review!)**

**Well yeah, it's gonna be some major suspense (honestly probably my most suspenseful story EVER), so I'd love to update very quickly! If you'd love for m to update quickly as well, you better review! :3**

**Thanks guys and it's great to be back!**


	2. What it Feels Like

"Sonic," I spoke tentatively as I walked up to him.

I'd been waiting patiently here while Tails ran a few last tests so that he could try to figure out how to reverse the effects of the chaos blast. It had been two full days and all I could really do, quite literally _all_ I could do, was just sit around and wait. And I couldn't take it anymore.

Sonic had been sitting quietly in a chair, lost in thought like he often seemed to be the past few days, and he looked up at me as soon as I spoke.

"What is it Amy?" he asked, his voice as full of concern as it had been since the incident. I could tell he was angry and frustrated but he would never put that on me.

"I...I just wanted to know if I could...go home," I admitted.

"Tails doesn't have anything else he needs you here for?" he asked, his eyes trailing to the closed door of Tails's computer room for a quick second.

"No, he's already done everything he needs me for for a while."

"Well I don't see why not I guess," he said, somewhat glumly. "Let me check with him first; I guess your bored of just waiting around here."

I was afraid to agree, but it was true. That and...nervous I guess. I felt like I was intruding or something to be just hanging around here when I was no longer needed. There wouldn't be much else I could do at my house but at least I wouldn't feel the guilt of everything just from entering a room.

I tried just walking beside him at first as we headed back towards my house, but it felt like walking barefoot on flaming needle when I stepped on the living grass and crushed all of its energy under my feet with every step. I guess it goes without saying that I didn't walk very far. I did, however, have to spend a good moment on the burning sharpness just to explain to Sonic that a three second run was nothing compared to how much energy I'd feel spike through me if I had to walk an entire ten minutes.

Still hesitantly, Sonic picked me up and rushed to my house extra fast, trying to spend as little time as possible causing me the pain of being held. We got there and he practically dropped me on the front top step. I reached for the door knob and drew back as the metal sent a wave of pain up my finger tip. Sonic practically gritted his teeth as he reached past me and opened the door.

"Will you stay for a little while?" I asked and he looked at me seeming slightly confused for a moment. "I wanted to talk."

He shrugged and followed me into the living room, taking a seat across from the couch I sat on. I tried not to sigh as he took back on the deep thoughtful look he'd been occupying for a while now. He must have heard me, though, because the look disappeared and he looked at me, though I fought the urge to meet his gaze and dropped mine to the floor.

"I should..." he began slowly and that's when I burst.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean for this to happen any more than you did and I don't...I'm sorry. _Please_ don't be mad at me," I said, trying to ignore the burning tears welling in my eyes.

"Amy?" he said quietly, sounding confused and concerned.

"You don't have to stay here any longer if you don't want to; I'll be fine. I just wanted you to know..."

"Amy," he began, sitting on the couch, the closest he'd willingly come to me in days, and almost reaching out to touch my cheek but stopping a few inches away. "Please don't be sorry."

I looked into his eyes then, but it wasn't at all what I'd been expecting. I thought I'd see guilt or anger or even confusion, but...there was only one emotion and it was as clear as day. It was sorrow...longing. He wanted to reach out and hold my hand, to tell me he was sorry and that would be okay, but he couldn't. He knew that it would only hurt me and that it might _not_ be okay. But it was better than if he was mad at me still. I would give anything to know that he wasn't, and now I did.

"It's not your fault at all; please _please_ don't be sorry! I just..._I'm_ sorry."

"Why?"

That apparently caught him off guard. "It's my fault Amy! If I had just saved you and gotten away or...I should have stopped this before it started!"

"Why? Why does it have to be your responsibility to make sure everyone is okay before you take care of yourself? You don't _have_ to put yourself in danger just to take care of everyone else!"

"But I do!"

"Why?" I waited, but he didn't respond. "You've risked your life and even gotten hurt so many times for me and everyone else, so why does it have to be your responsibility the one time _I_ do the _exact same thing_?"

"Because I'd MUCH rather go through something like that than see you suffer because of _my_ mistake!" he blurted, surprising us both at least a little.

"But...why?"

"Because I can't stand to see you hurting."

"No, I mean why do you think it's your mistake? I thought you'd be mad at me because...because if I'd thought it through instead of panicking so irrationally...well, we could've avoided all of this."

"Amy, if it weren't for me you'd never be captured in the first place! If we'd never even met then-"

"Then I'd be miserable! My life was _nothing_ before I met you and I don't care what happens as long as I'm here with you!" The words jumped out of my mouth before going through my head for inspection, causing my eyes to widen and a hand to involuntarily clap over my mouth. Sonic's gaze rose from the floor and he eyed me suspiciously.

"Amy..." he began quietly, a gentle voice like trying to coax a kid into giving a toy to their sibling or something.

"Okay, whatever," I said, turning away and trying to avoid the now inevitable topic.

"Amy, where did you come from?"

"Nowhere," I mumbled, refusing to meet his gaze even as he moved around to be in front of me again.

"I guess it seems like I've know you forever sometimes Ames," he began. "I remember how we met...do you remember it?"

I would never forget. I smiled a fragile grin, trying not to let him see he'd been able to do this to me. He couldn't make me give in and pour out a stupid life story, especially if it wasn't even much of a life in the first place before I joined the group.

"I thought you'd be one of the one time random victims of Egghead, but you proved me wrong. I couldn't have gotten rid of you if I wanted, so I guess it was impossible not to be friends; you can be very persistent."

Now he made it impossible not to smile back with his stupidly awesome grin forced right in front of me.

"I can be persistent too you know."

I sighed. He was right. "If you're looking for some long dramatic sob story get over it. It was nothing, literally nothing, before I joined the group. That's why I was so persistent."

"What kind of nothing are we talking about?"

"Nothing you wouldn't know about from experience I'm sure. Okay, I never knew my parents; I guess my first memory ever would be living in some tree-forest fort or something somewhere, I don't know, I guess near east Mobius. I can't even remember really. It seems like it was just leaving and hiding for as long as I can remember. Nothing."

"And then..."

"I don't even know! I don't want to remember any of it and I don't even think I do! I've never _tried_ to or anything!"

"Okay, so you were on your own, traveling. That's how I met Tails you know, only I took him in rather than him insisting to stay. You're not being chastised or anything, Ames."

"For anything?"

"No. I'm not mad at you for anything that's happened; I just wish I could fix it. I'm sorry; this is by far the worst thing that has ever happened to you and don't argue unless you're willing to provide details," he said and I knew he was playing me.

I could take the bate and confess something worse, which in all honesty I couldn't think of, or just agree and let him feel guilty. I kept my mouth shut.

"We'll find a way to make it better; I promise this won't be forever, Ames," he hesitated, staying still for a moment as I continued refusing to meet his gaze. He sighed and stood up. "I'm going to come back and check on you every now and then since you probably can't use the phone. If there's an emergency or something..."

"I'll get to you some way or another."

"Okay."

And that was it. He left and I was alone for the first time since the accident. There were so many thoughts I needed to gather, so many things I needed to do, and all they took was my mind. That was the best part.

What if I was never back to normal? Never able to feel the grass so soft and wet without the accompaniment of an electronegative register in my skin? What if I could never relax without all this tension and energy boiling and ravaging inside me? What if I could never touch or feel anything ever again without realizing its charge; its movement; its life?

I had become so aware of the life in _everything_! There was some sort of spark in everything I touched, whether it was a regenerating cell or atoms bouncing around in place or some microscopic organism. And all of them hurt! Most of it was just slight feelings, pulses, shocks, no worse than the boiling feeling on your skin when holding a warm drink tightly in your hands, but it was there. I knew it...I felt it.

The questions kept coming; I saw so many things I couldn't do and might not ever be able to do again! I felt so empty. I couldn't move without shaking waves of energy vibrating into my acknowledgment. I couldn't sleep or eat or...anything. Finally, there seemed like no way to keep my largest fear from making itself very clear.

Sonic.

What if I could never be with him again? Never enjoy the feeling of his arms around me without being aware of the pain it caused. The immense energy in me was fighting with that in him, causing thousands of inactive volts of energy to blow through my body.

What if I could never hold his hand again? I felt so cold and so scarred. I saw it in his eyes just moments ago; the same want I felt for him. He had wanted to reach out and hold my hand; comfort me and tell me it would be alright. But he couldn't. Not only would it hurt me more...but it would be a lie.

What about all the things we hadn't done? We'd never gone on a real date. We'd never kissed...honestly, I'd never kissed _anyone_ come to think of it. I'd been in love since I met Sonic, but I'd _never been_ loved. At this point...maybe I never would be.

The energy of a chaos emerald was trapped in my body, meaning that now there were only six chaos emeralds in the universe! But without that seventh one, neither Sonic or Shadow would ever be able to fully go into super form. That meant that if it came down to it, the downfall of the universe could very well be my fault entirely! I had to get this energy out of me somehow. Then it would be able to cluster back together and form the emerald again.

From what I figured, Tails was pretty sure there was no way I could purposefully access all that built up energy, but I had to prove it to myself before I believed him. I went to the kitchen and reached up to the top cabinet, getting down a little white box. I pulled out a light bulb and felt a zap as my skin touched the metal at the end. I ignored the buzzing electrons and held it in the tips of my fingers.

A little spark appeared inside but faded after the first touch. I focused intently on the burning energy that was already in it and that clustered in my finger tips. It glowed dimly but didn't last long. I focused even harder and forced a jolt of energy into my hand and out into the bulb. It burned like an enormous electrocution surging through my hand and the light bulb illuminated brilliantly, growing so bright so fast that it exploded right there in my hand! I felt momentarily exhausted and lost even the energy to stand. I felt my eyes roll back in my head and I collapsed.

...

A few violent shakes rippled through me and slowly forced my eyes opened again. My hand was still throbbing and burning and I looked over to see little specs of blood where the glass from the bulb had cut into my flesh. I felt completely drained, like I couldn't even move for a few moments.

I laid as still as I could for a long few minutes until my heart stopped beating frantically and I had the energy to sit up, though it still seemed like a strenuous task. The movement, at least, got the energy to begin flowing in me again. I was able to stand up and wipe the broken glass off my hand. It was a throbbing burn, not even counting the added sting from the torn skin.

I clutched the hand tightly in my other one, squeezing it until the throbbing faded to numbness. I still felt electricity surging through it, but not as badly now at least. I sighed, going to the hall closet, using a stick to open it so I wouldn't have to deal with the offending shock of the metal handles.

Just as I retrieved the little plastic broom and dustpan and began scooping the broken glass into it, I heard a knock on the front door. Without giving me time to respond, Sonic appeared in the doorway to the kitchen.

"What're you doing?" he asked, eying the broken glass incredulously.

"Um, just cleaning up a little mess," why was I so bad at lying?

"What's the glass from?"

"I uh...dropped something."

"What?" damn it! Why'd he have to be so considerate!

"A light bulb; no big deal or anything," I turned away and went to dump the pieces into the trash can.

Sonic was no more than two inches behind me when I turned around, causing me to jump back and almost hit the microwave, which, I may add, would have hurt like hell! I yelled quietly but he remained unmoved and skeptical.

"You're shaking, Amy," he stated calmly enough. It made me frustrated; why couldn't he just show _some_ sort of emotion?

"Yeah, probably because you scared me!"

"No, you already were when I got here," his eyes dropped to my hand, which was still soar and I noticed it had turned slightly purple. "Hold out your hand," he instructed, not seeming to give me a choice according to his tone.

I held out the hand the hadn't been hurt and he gave me a stern look. I sighed and held up the other one so he could only see the back at first. Now he was almost glaring with impatience. I turned it over and he examined the nicks and creases where blood had slightly pooled by now. It was very visibly shaking and I cursed the whole stupid thing in my head. I hadn't even realized it was still bleeding!

"I'll turn on the faucet so you can rinse it off while you tell me what happened. The _truth_ though, please; you really suck at lying."

He said the whole thing so calmly. I had to wonder if this whole composure thing would end up driving him insane or just wanting to scream or something and, if so, how long that would take. He'd been so cool and collected every time he spoke lately...I had to wonder how he did it. I told him what had happened with the light bulb and my experiment and he winced pretty much the whole time.

"It's hard to describe what it feels like," I explained. "It's like a surge of energy or electricity or something and then...nothing. I passed out for...I guess about an hour or something and when I first woke up I was totally drained. I'm okay now; you came in just as I was getting over it pretty much."

"Why would you do something like that?" there was slight frustration, even a little panic, hidden deep in his voice, but it was better than the not-so-reassuring monotone.

"I just wanted to see if there was a way I could release some of the energy, and there was! I know it kinda hurt and everything, but that's something, right? All I had to do was concentrate and-"

"Don't do anything like that anymore," he interrupted. "Please? Tails is going to find a _safe_ way to get this done, but until then just _please_ be careful!"

"Okay," I sighed. That pretty much meant be still and literally don't do ANYTHING!

"You should put some peroxide or something on your hand," he suggested.

"You know, I'd feel it if there were germs or infection or something on my hand still."

"Good for you," he said, setting down a bottle of hydrogen peroxide on the bathroom counter in front of me.

I groaned and let him pour a few drops over the little gashes. I winced, but it was nice. It wasn't the weird burn of electrocution like everything else seemed to be; it was the normal burn of peroxide on a cut. It was the same. Sonic gently blew on it until I untensed my body and the little white bubbles had finished cleaning out the cut.

"Better?" he asked.

I nodded and found myself smiling. I don't really know how or why, but I did. And he smiled back.

**Yay! Another chapter! And I only got one review? :( Well, I guess I can't expect too much after abandoning you guys for so long, but you should give this story a chance; I think it's really cool! **

**To Nickyy: Thanks so much for your review! And yes, as you can see by the Sonamy bits in this chapter, there will be romance mixed in with the story; I honestly think I'm incapable of writing something without any romance whatsoever. Maybe that'll be my next experiment...idk.**

**Anyway, I've already written the whole rest of the story (yeah, I know right?) so I'll update again as soon as I here some words from the reviewers! Btw, if you have a better idea for the description, PLEASE tell me! I suck at revising and this was just like...okay, what the hell is this story about? Yeah, maybe I'll just do a line from the story, but I want to change it! **

**Constructive criticism is totally welcomed and please let me hear some more opinions this time, kay? ;) Thanks and hop I see you soon! XD**


	3. Almost Forever

The best way to get back and forth from my house to Tails's workshop, I quickly figured out, was to jog by myself, but I had to where a certain pair of shoes with rubbery soles. Since rubber absorbed electricity, I had figured it would be worth a shot and it turned out to work pretty well. Within the past three weeks, I'd been back and forth about 15 times for some test or another scan or something. Tails said he could get a little more data on the situation every time, but from what I gathered, he hadn't really figured anything out along the lines of ending it yet.

Sonic was with me almost all the time now, which I normally would've loved, but seeing as how he wouldn't come withing three feet of me, it wasn't exactly thrilling. If it weren't for him, though...I honestly probably wouldn't have survived the first week.

I knew I was getting weaker, but the energy didn't diminish with my strength. I couldn't eat without feeling sick and I couldn't sleep for anything, so basically all I could do was talk, breath, and barely live. Sonic was much more patient with me than I had thought he'd have been. He sat quietly and waited when I was having one of my "moments" where all I could really do was sit through the seizes of pain and electricity that momentarily took over me. It never lasted for more than a few minutes when those came, but there was really nothing to do but grit my teeth and bear it.

The first time that had happened was on my second day back home. It was only about 7:00 in the morning, so Sonic had either still been asleep or had just woken up. I had been, as usual, sitting on the couch and exploring my mind. I sighed, looking out the door, when, as suddenly as a flash of lightening, I found my entire body go wild with pain. Like being struck by lightening.

I clenched my teeth and tried not to scream, though I'm still not sure if I refrained, as my body tensed and twisted in a writhing wretch of poisonous electrocution. I felt it come in waves, like a seizure, only I was fully, if not more than usual, conscious and aware. Within a second, Sonic was infront of me with concern emanating off his face.

"Amy? Amy, are you okay?" he said, or rather yelled.

I squeezed my eyes shut and bit my lip so hard I could feel my back teeth gritted together and just waited for it to subside. Once I opened my eyes and regained focus, Sonic was on a video chat with Tails on his watch, trying to explain what was going on.

"Sonic," I choked out, trying to make the electrons inside my still-shaky body quiet down. "I'm okay."

That took a while after wards to explain to both of the confused boys, but Tails finally dubbed it as one of the more noticeable side-effects. Sonic panicked just as much the second time, but after that I told him he could only help if he didn't worry, he struggled to stay calm whenever one of those moments came on. I could still see him trying to hide the worry.

"Amy, do you have any idea how stubborn you are?" the question caught me off guard, causing me to turn to him with a puzzled expression.

"What do you mean?" I asked, following him back into my house from our quick trip to the workshop to check in with Tails.

"You tried to open the door," he pointed out and I shrugged. Okay, so I reached for the door knob when we got back, but that was just a normal gesture.

"So? I'm just not used to everything," I defended.

Sonic sighed as we both took seat on opposite ends of the sofa, facing each other. "No, not just that. You're...independent. You like to do things for yourself and without asking for help."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Not necessarily most of the time, but right now yes because you _do_ need help. I wish..." he sighed again. "I wish you wouldn't be so intent on acting the same. Nothing's the same and you know it just as much as I do! So why don't you just..."

"Just what? Give up and let you do everything for me?"

"Yes!"

"No!" I fired back. "I've already given in a lot; why are _you_ so intent on making everything different?"

"I'm not! But it is anyway," he tried and we both groaned.

"Okay, I'm stubborn and you're overprotective. Is that good enough for you?"

"The admission, yes, but not enough for me to say 'okay, let's just move on forever'."

"Alright, I won't be so stubborn if you won't be so overprotective."

"Yeah right! I don't think that's even possible for either of us, Ames."

"Then we'll both just have to deal with it," I teased and Sonic groaned. It made me giggle. Well, at least we could both be entertaining.

Eventually, I think we both got a little better about our personal issues with the whole situation. He didn't pester me about all the things I should have or shouldn't have done. If I burnt my hand simply trying to open a door, he'd say to stop being so independent or scold me for not asking for help, but he didn't make a big deal over it. I guess that was one thing I was really happy about, seeing as how I didn't want a 10 minute sympathy lecture just because I wanted to try to do something so little on my own...and couldn't.

"You should eat something, Ames," Sonic told me one morning as he sat down for breakfast.

I had gone a week since the incident and not eaten a thing or slept for a minute; I didn't see much need in food since I already had all the energy I needed, and then some and the same went for sleep. However, I had been pretty dismayed tat my now finally developed figure was infinitesimally dwindling away. So I gave in and decided to join him for the meal. That just ended with a horrible situation.

After just one bite of an apple, I felt the energy begin buzzing in place in my throat, following the food as I swallowed it down. Soon enough the swirl spread out and turned into the sort of ache that comes with a stomach flu or something. I was sure I'd get sick, but instead I just ended up with a major electrical stomach ache that lasted for about half the day. Sonic didn't suggest food after that anymore.

"Think you could hold something down?" He had asked a few times if I passed through the kitchen while he ate. I would shake my head no and keep walking away. He understood and respected that.

Over the course of three weeks, I got incredibly bored. I ended up devouring about 12 new novels just from the time he had to sleep or had to go on a run to burn some of his own energy. He really put his own life on hold for me, which was not only shocking, but amazing. I actually had to go to him one day and tell him to take a run because I could see that he was going stir crazy. I couldn't believe he'd sacrifice so much for me.

It was about 11:00 in the morning and Sonic was out for a run. I was lying on my stomach on the carpet in the living room, just feeling all the tiny little pulses of electricity. All the atoms vibrating between the unnoticeable empty spaces. All the organisms that lived in the air and the dirt and the everything that most people didn't even know or care about. All their tiny electrical pulses were mine and mine alone to notice.

My cheek was pressed against the carpet as well and I could feel on the tender skin of my face what it was really like. If I focused past the swirling energy in everyone and everything, I could just barely catch glimpses of the real world. I could only really feel it if I focused on everything else. I focused so hard that it just seemed natural and almost disappeared, leaving me laying on a real floor with the real scratchy soft carpet on my skin.

"Amy?" Sonic said in a concerned voice as he entered the room. I raised a hand in a half-wave so he'd no I wasn't passed out or something. "What are you doing?"

"Good morning," I said, trying to buy some time to think of a good answer.

"Yeah, you too I guess," he said, laying down next to me in the same position so that we were facing each other. He eyed me with a questioning expression.

I sighed. "I'm...just trying to feel. It's almost working."

His eyes widened; I had caught him off guard. "Almost?"

"I can only feel the carpet a little because it's hard to focus past all...the energy."

"In the carpet?"

I nodded. "In everything! The carpet doesn't have quite as much as most of the other things, so it's a good place to start."

"With feeling," he said, sort of a statement but mostly in inquisition. I nodded again and he sighed against the floor. "I'm so sorry," I barely heard the words, he spoke so quietly.

"Wh-"

"Amy, you know it's my fault! Stop trying to pretend it's not!"

"But it isn't!" I shouted back. Where did that come from? "Wh...where did that come from?" I repeated the thought aloud.

"I don't know, I'm sorry. I just...everything's...ruined."

"What do you mean?" Why would he start this now? He knew I didn't blame him; we had almost adjusted to everything and...why did it have to be so complicated?

He sighed. "You know; I know you're mad at me. Why don't you show it?"

"I'm not mad, Sonic. _None_ of this is your fault and you shouldn't go blaming yourself for everything."

"Amy, do you..." he paused and sat up, holding a hand over his forehead as if trying to coax the thoughts inside to change.

"What?" I sat up too and locked my gaze with his. I was getting seriously pissed off with his stupid blame game. Especially when he was against himself!

"I just...more than anything I wish I could hold your hand right now and know that it would be okay."

I looked down a my involuntarily trembling hands and over to his, clenched in tight fists.

"What makes you think it won't?" I asked, for the first time seeing his doubt in...me.

"I don't! I just...wish I knew for sure. If anything happens to you, Amy...I'd never forgive myself."

"But it's not your mistake to be forgiven of!" My eyes burned with the tears of frustration, anger, and...doubt. He doubted me. In my ability to get through this.

"You're in pain, Amy. Everything; don't deny it because you know better than I do that it's true! You feel it, but I see it. I see you, and how much this has taken from you. It's my fault."

"Okay, just be quiet now because it's not! I'm FINE! Stop thinking I'm not! Stop thinking I can't do this!" I stood up and ran for the door, yanking it open before I had the time to notice the wave of static on the metal knob.

I ran at top speed, trying my hardest not to notice all the spikes of energy pricking at my bare feet. I felt the energy levels increasing dramatically. I was going faster than I ever had before, but it still didn't take Sonic long to catch up. I felt adrenaline pumping, electricity bursting, and energy screaming inside my body. It was too much! It was too much to keep inside now!

"Amy, please stop!" Sonic begged, keeping pace beside me.

Tears began streaming down my face and falling behind me, but I didn't slow down. I sped up.

"At least slow down; we need to talk!"

I didn't. I would keep running forever if that's what it took to get rid of all this built up energy! I couldn't take it anymore; it was too much to handle!

"No!" I yelled, quickening my pace impossibly more so that I no longer saw him beside me.

With no warning, though, Sonic was suddenly there in front of me. He stood with his arms spread in a barrier like way and I immediately stopped the motion of my legs just before I collided with him too hard. I still didn't stop completely until I was against him, feeling the burn of his skin against mine. I wrapped my arms around him and didn't try to ignore the pain. I embraced it.

"Amy, stop," he said, trying to stay calm.

"It's too much!" I cried, tightening my grip around him and pinning his arms to his sides.

"I know, Amy. Let me get you to Tails; we'll figure something out." he was getting less calm.

"No I-I can't! It's too much! I...I'm sorry," I held him even tighter and focused on the burning energy inside of me. And I focused on releasing it all at once.

"Amy, stop!" Sonic commanded, trying to get out of my grasp.

I was stronger for once, though. All the energy was going to come out right now even if it killed me! And from the unbearable fiery waves shooting through me, it seemed like maybe it would. I barely resisted the urge to scream for and entire five seconds before I had to open my mouth, intentionally for air, but as I did the cry wouldn't stay in for anything.

"Amy, don't do this! PLEASE!" Sonic begged and I could tell from the way his voice cracked that he either was or soon would be crying.

I wanted more than almost anything to let go and save what energy I had left and stop the agonizing electrocution that was ravaging my body. I wanted to stop Sonic's concern and just give up right then and there, but even more than that I wanted to prove what I could do:

Survive.

With one last extreme whip of indescribable excruciation, I rid myself of the remaining energy so that it all accumulated together in Sonic's hand in the for of a chaos emerald. With that gone, so went the adrenaline, the energy, the strength, the power...and the pain.

My arms no longer had the force to hold Sonic still or me against him and my legs gave out as well. I fell back on the ground, trying to stay conscious for just a moment. Just one more millisecond. The world spun and blurred around me and I blinked and used everything I had left in me to make it still. And there was Sonic, knelt beside me with the chaos emerald discarded to the side. He had his arms slid under my shoulders and was the only thing keeping me from collapsing the rest of the way.

I was shaky and weak, but I still forced my limp arm to reach up and cup his face. I smiled and he smiled back, his eyes full of tears. I'd never seen Sonic cry before. He reached one hand up and held mine against his face. It felt so gentle.

"It doesn't hurt," I forced myself to say in a voice I hoped was real.

"I know. It...it's gonna be okay Amy. I'll get you to Tails and he can fix you up. You'll be okay," one tear fell down his cheek and landed on mine. With a quivering lip, I widened my smile. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

I matched his quiet tone, only my voice was weak rather than comfortingly sound. "Don't be; I have no regrets."

Those were the last words I could force out before the blackness took over. And I couldn't stop it for any longer. Almost forever.

**OMG! I'm mega-hyper and at the same time about to die of sleep-deprivation! Thanks for the reviews and I don't wanna kill the moment with some long, rambly note, so I'll just say three quick things:**

**Review please!**

**This story is not over!**

**PLEASE review!**

**Thanks and goodnight! **


	4. Love Has No Overload

The first thing I was aware of was numbness. It felt so good. The next thing I noticed was stillness. That, also, would never again be taken for granted. Those two things alone were enough to make me think that maybe this wasn't so bad. Floating here in my world of nothing. No thoughts meant no worries. No worries meant no stress. No stress was a new feeling all together.

I wasn't sacred. I wasn't angry or enduring, confused or sure, tired or energetic, weak or strong, sad or happy. I was nothing. It wasn't okay, but it wasn't _not_ okay either. Nothing was something new as well.

Gradually, I became more aware of things. How this _was_ nothing. How I was so content with it. There was no pain. There was no waves of energy surging through me, trying to take over. That was gone. So was all other feeling. Was this death? Nothing...forever? I would have panicked, but...panic wasn't real here. Just the stillness and the numbness and the nothing. The increasingly overwhelming nothing.

As thought came into the picture, so did emotion. The nothing began clearing form my mind, at least, and it eventually began forming a cloudy haziness of...thought. Stress came back and I knew this could no longer be death. It was no longer nothing, just...stillness and numbness. As I became aware of this, I began to get scared. Was I trapped here forever in the black? Would I ever get out? How?

Emotion and thought and turbulence had all come back by now. I could feel my chest rise and fall as I breathed. I could feel my heart beating, pulsing. I had a pulse. I had life. All that was left was feeling; the hardest thing to _want_ back after all I'd been through. I was scared to go back to the pain! What if it wasn't gone? What if I still had to suffer from every touch with everything?

My breath became part of my personal action rather than an involuntary reflex and my heart beat quickened to an actual pace rather than the required bump only every few seconds that just barely proved I was alive. I was coming back and all that was left was the feeling.

Rather than pain, the first thing I felt was...softness. I could barely remember it; there had been nothing but either numbness or pain for what seemed almost like forever now. I felt softness underneath me and around me. I felt it on me. In my hand, the one that had been either burning or numb from my first light bulb experiment who knows how long ago from now. It was such a gentle, reassuring feeling.

It was warmth and comfort and everything I'd been longing for ever since...forever come to think of it. I took control over from the involuntarily stimulated part of my brain so that I was breathing and laying and being still all on my own. I wrapped my fingers around the comfort in my hand and opened my eyes.

It was the opposite of blackness on the other side. It was the brightest white light I'd ever seen! I squinted my eyes immediately back shut and waited for the light to stop burning through my eye lids before I allowed them to flutter-_slowly_-opened to face the world. It took a moment for the blurs to become distinctive shapes, but once they did it seemed so beautiful!

It was just a light blue ceiling tile with little specs, but after eternities in the dark it seemed so gloriously relieving! Next to the tile were dozens more exactly alike, so I let my sight branch out to find other things. The room, the machines-which I could now hear droning a consistent beeping that followed that of my heart rate-and Sonic.

He was on his knees on the floor against the side of my bed. And he had his hand in mine in the most comforting way I'd ever felt.

"Welcome back," he said quietly with a smile so big it could barely fit on his face.

I smiled back and he gave my hand a reassuring squeeze.

"I...I'm" my voice was dry and hoarse; it was too hard to make it work.

"Okay. You're okay Ames!" My smiled widened and I nodded slightly.

I was okay! Despite the fact that the odds were against me and that even I thought I wouldn't make it, I had. I was so much more than okay!

"I should get Tails; he'll want to know you're awake. Are you okay?"

"Better," I whispered, not exactly sounding better than okay, but that didn't matter. In all honesty I'd probably never felt weaker in my life, but that didn't matter. I didn't feel pain anymore; that's what mattered.

He held my hand tightly in both of his. He was so warm and his grasp was firm, but gentle. It was amazing.

"No pain?" he asked and I shook my head, not sure if I'd be able to speak anymore than I had with just one word.

His smile grew impossibly larger and he kissed the back of my hand before standing up.

"I'll be right back," he promised and practically jumped out of the room.

Tails came back with Sonic just a few seconds later looking more like an actual doctor than an eight-year-old kitsune. I smiled at him and made a move to sit up but found myself incapable of any large amount of motion. Tails noticed and held up a hand in a motion to stop as he returned my smile.

"Don't try anything funny now, Amy. I'm gonna check all your vitals first so just relax for a minute, okay?" He said politely as Sonic took a seat a few feet away. "How are you feeling? Any pain whatsoever?"

I glanced quickly at Sonic and back. The fox followed my gaze and Sonic said how I'd already told him no to the pain.

"Does your throat hurt or anything? Can you talk?" he asked.

I shook my head no, sort of an answer to both. "I'm just hoarse is all; I'm great," I said honestly, but the words were mostly just shapes on my lips, coming out in a whisper at loudest.

"Do you want some water or anything?" Tails asked, gesturing to an unopened water bottle waiting on a table next to the bed.

I took a small sip and found that it barely helped at all. "Any better?" Tails asked.

I cleared my throat and was able to make semi-words mix in with the whispers. "Not too much; I'm fine though."

"Okay, but you've gotta let me know if you need _anything,_" he said and I nodded in agreement as he got a little bag and set it up on the bed next to my side. He pressed a button on the bed rail that tilted the bed until it move me to a sitting position. "What's the last thing you remember before you woke up?"

"I didn't forget anything; I'm sure of that," I whispered, giving up on the stupid talking. Honestly I could whisper louder than I could speak at this point. "I got upset and I started to run away," I kept stealing glances at Sonic to see his reaction, but he seemed completely calm and happy. "When Sonic caught me I guess I just gave up because there was too much energy and I...released it."

"Okay, that's good. Keep you eyes focused on my finger," he instructed while pulling out a little flashlight and sweeping it in front of my face a few times. "You don't have a headache or anything like that?"

I shook my head. "I feel really good."

He put down the flashlight and scribbled something quickly on a clipboard. "Do you feel tired or anything?"

That's where my perfect healthiness streak died. "Weak," I admitted.

"Don't worry, Amy; that shouldn't be a problem. I'd honestly be more worried if you were up and active already. It's going to take you some time to get all your energy back, but until then you just take it easy, okay?"

"Tails, how long was I...unconscious?"

"About a week and a half," he admitted.

"Day after tomorrow would've been two," Sonic interjected.

"How...it only felt like 10 minutes!"

"It's okay, Amy. I've know people who go into a comma for months before they wake up; there's nothing to worry about, okay?" Tails said reassuringly. I nodded. "You're probably going to have a concussion, but I'll have to do a CT scan before I give you any numbers. We can go ahead and get that over with now if you want so you won't have anything to worry about."

"Yes please," I said quietly and Sonic automatically stood up and stepped over.

Tails put the few things back in his bag and went to open the door while Sonic slid his arms under my legs and behind my back, pulling me out of the bed in one fluid, gentle movement. I wrapped my arms around him, not because I was afraid he might drop me or anything, but just because I'd missed being able to feel him without the accompanying pain. When we got to the big machine a few rooms over, it was harder than I expected to let him put me down.

After Tails finished all of his tests, I felt ready to pass out all over again. I had barely any energy, but I was determined to make what I could out of what I did have. It wasn't more than five minutes before Tails came out with his analysis. Sonic was sitting on the bed with me now, holding his arms around me while I half-slept with my head on his shoulder.

"Like I figured, Amy, you do have a concussion. It's not the worst, but it's not something you can just ignore. First, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much energy do you have right now?" he asked. "10 is most by the way."

I cleared my throat so I'd at least have a shot at audible words. "0.5," I said, "at most."

"See that's the only thing that makes it tricky; after everything, I figured you'd be tired, since being passed out like you were is a completely different thing from sleep. The problem is that if you go to sleep with a concussion of this level any time within the next 30 hours, you'd be very likely to go into a comma, which I can't even assure you'd be able to come out of. Since you're out of energy, you'd be risking fatigue if you stayed up and a comma if you didn't."

"So what's the plan?" Sonic asked, looking a little nervous.

"Well, I say we've just got to make her stay up. As long as you don't overdose on caffeine or something to force yourself to stay awake, you wouldn't be able to _die_ of fatigue or anything. You'll be pretty exhausted by the end of this, but the worst that could happen other than that would be a system shut down, which is basically the same thing that happened to keep you passed out the past two weeks. I really doubt that would happen again, but it's always technically possible.

"If it came down to sleep or pass out, you'd be able to rest for a little while, but that would probably just make it even harder to be awake afterward. 30 minutes or less at a time would be preferable, but it would have to be several hours between intervals; up to an hour is about as long as you could sleep at a time, though, without going into full unconsciousness."

I sighed. That sucked. I was honestly hoping to be able to go home and sleep the night and be better by tomorrow or something, but I guess that wasn't going to happen.

"30 hours?" I recapped and Tails nodded.

"That would mean about 8:00 tomorrow night at the soonest, since it's 2 pm now."

I sighed again and Sonic wrapped his hand around mine in a comforting way. "You've made it this far," he said and I smiled.

"Okay," I agreed.

"Well, you can stay here until then if you want or go home, but I'm not going to let you be left alone until tomorrow," Tails said.

"Okay, Sonic you've gotta come with me then because I really want to go home," I said, giving him my best pouty face.

He laughed. "Not a problem; I'll take care of her Tails," he said and the fox nodded.

Sonic held me tighter in his arms and stood up. He sped off towards my house and I took refuge in the comfort of his arms.

Sometimes it seemed like there were only extremes with nothing in the middle to soak them up. It seemed like one second there was too much energy to deal with and now...none. I groaned at the very thought. Within a short amount of time, Sonic could have me back home and I could relax for a while, but even then I wouldn't be able to give in to the exhaustion plaguing myself. 30 hours; that was torture.

I had my eyes closed the whole time and when I felt Sonic slide to a stop in front of my house I knew that those few seconds of darkness were over.

"Wake up, we're here," Sonic said only somewhat sarcastically, shifting so that he had a free arm to open the door without putting me down.

"I'm not asleep; someone glued my eyes closed," I mumbled sort of audibly.

"Oh good; now I'm completely in charge!"

I sighed and forced my eyes open. Everything was more or less the same as how I remembered it, excusing the thin layer of dust that proved the house had been uninhabited for a while. I took in a slow breath through my nose and smiled contently. It still smelled like home...only dustier. I'd have some cleaning to do once I got back into the pattern of living.

"First thing's first," Sonic began, using a foot to close the door behind him, "_you_ need to get something to eat. It's been about five whole weeks since you've had actual food in your system."

"Okay," I agreed as he set me down on the kitchen counter top next to the sink.

"So what'll it be?"

"I'm just gonna say toast for now."

"Toast?"

"Toast," I repeated.

"Toast," Sonic confirmed.

I sighed. "Would you please just get out the bread?"

"Yes. Because you use bread to make toast!"

I groaned. "Sonic, you're hopeless in the kitchen. You know that, right?"

He shrugged, chuckling as he retrieved a loaf of bread from the cabinet. At least he knew where it was. I stuck two slices in the toaster and he got out butter and cinnamon for me while it cooked. My stomach started to growl at the nearly undetectable crispy smell until the toaster popped. The sudden movement surprised me so that I gasped. Sonic laughed at me.

"So you're afraid of the toaster?"

"Yeah, whatsit to ya?"

He laughed. "It's just...strange. Anything else?"

I sighed while buttering the toast. "The microwave too; if it beeps when I'm not expecting it, sometimes I scream."

Now Sonic was fully cracking up. "So you can jump in front of a laser no problem, but when it comes to food preparation-"

"I use the oven!" I finished.

"Well it's a good thing you can cook so well that that's all you need. You know, even if it comes with directions I still need Tails conformation that I'm doing it right."

"Trust me, Sonic, I know," I shuddered at the memory of the spaghetti night Sonic tried to organize once. The noodles were black and all shriveled up, the sauce...well, no one dared to try the sauce, and, to top it all off, he left the stove on once it was done and nearly caught a _metal_ pan on fire! We had pizza that night.

"Well you're nice," he said sarcastically.

After I finished my toast, I looked in the fridge to find that just about everything in it had gone bad! The only thing that seemed digestible out of the mess was a bottle of vegetable juice and some cheese, but even the cheese would require slicing the mold off. I shuddered and closed the fridge. Sonic sat at the table a few feet and looked at me puzzled.

"I'm gonna have some shopping to do soon," I explained, hoping the fridge wouldn't need to be opened again for a while.

"What about the pantry?" he suggested and I nodded.

The food still looked good, but mostly it was just canned or boxed foods; not exactly the right thing for a mid-day meal. I scanned the shelves and finally chose a bag of noddle soup from near the bottom. It was quick to make and okay to eat whenever, so I put on a pot of water to boil for a minute.

"So what do you want me to do?" Sonic asked helpfully.

I thought for a moment. Really the only things that needed to be done was cleaning and grocery shopping, but I'd rather wait and handle that when I felt better. As for now, all I really wanted to do was get something to eat so I'd feel a little better, and Sonic probably _shouldn't_ help with that.

"Sit with me," I finally said, hopping back up on the counter and gesturing for him to come over next to me.

"That's not exactly what I meant," he said as he walked over and complied to my request, "but I'll do it."

"Well there's nothing else I want to get done right now; I'm allowed to procrastinate until I'm able to stand up for five whole minutes, right?"

"Yes, Amy, get better first and then worry about," he fake gasped, "a dirty floor!"

"I'm not _that_ much a neat freak, am I?"

"You've got second place right after Vanilla," Sonic said.

…

I guess it's a good thing that the day passed by so quickly; that meant that tomorrow wasn't a forever away and that I might actually make it until then without collapsing. Night time, however, was a different story entirely. I could still remember the first time I ever pulled an all-nighter; I was eight years old and one night seemed to feel like three times as long as a day. Seven years later and the nights still felt longer; I was in for a rough ride.

"I'll be up with you, Ames; no worries," Sonic promised.

"But then you'll be tired too," I protested.

"Not as bad as you; I'd have to anyway just to make sure you don't fall asleep accidentally."

"I wouldn't," I said with a yawn that proved I was lying.

"Yeah, I can tell. So what do you want to do? We can watch a movie or something," Sonic offered.

"I've seen every movie I have twice or more and now they just put me to sleep faster," I said.

"Well, let's see if there's something good playing on TV," he offered.

It was Tuesday night at 10:00; how could there _possibly_ be anything good on right now? I sighed and let Sonic check the guide, surprisingly enough finding that several movies either were or soon would be on. The real challenge was finding a good one.

Eventually, Sonic talked me into a horror movie that was supposed to come on in half an hour called "Hide and Seek". I didn't really care too much for horror movies, but Sonic convinced me somehow. I guess it made sense; I told him that I was prone to falling asleep during movies, so he had to choose the only one with the 'horror' genre so that I wouldn't be able to fall asleep.

During the half hour we waited before it came on, I made popcorn and Sonic decided to transform my living room into a complex castle of blankets. It was really pretty cool, actually. He moved the little table, the only thing in the middle of the room since all the furniture was against walls, and had it against the wall under the TV, which was mounted in an entertainment station. There were some thick blankets laying out on the floor and thinner sheets hanging on the furniture or picture frames on the walls. I laughed as I walked in carrying the bowl of popcorn.

"Tada!" Sonic exclaimed, seeming very proud of his creation.

"Wow, this is really cool!"

"Thanks! I hope you don't mind that I got all your blankets from the hall closet."

"Not at all; it's great!"

"Cool," he said, tossing a piece of popcorn in his mouth. "Oh, and if you get too scared, just remember that it's only a movie."

"I won't get scared!"

"Then why did you agree that you could only stay up if it was scary?"

"I never said that! Come on, it'll be starting soon anyway," I fussed, following him to a comfortable spot in the blanket fort.

The movie ended up being pretty good...in a creepy unexpected way. Like I said, I'm not a huge fan of horror flicks, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but it was okay. Alright, it freaked me out. But I wasn't too painfully obvious about it, so Sonic agreed that I fared pretty well. It was just...surprising a lot of the time. I mean, it's not like I didn't expect something to jump out of the closet when the scary background music started getting louder, but it was completely misleading in the end!

"Okay, so you survived it; I'm pretty impressed."

"Pft, piece of cake!" I said, trying to hide the slight waver in my voice.

"Well, it's 12:30 in the morning; what do you want to do now?"

"I'm too tired to do anything," I admitted with a groan.

"Alright, so a basic nothing without sleep. Do you want to watch stars?" he offered. Though it was an obvious answer, I still took a moment of consideration; Sonic spent most of his nights on rooftops and I had always wondered what it would be like, though I never really got around to trying it for myself. All in all, it sounded great!

"Sure!" I said.

Sonic smiled and picked me up, zipping up the staircase and out my bedroom window without a word of warning. I was too exhausted to scream, but let me assure you I was terrified at first! He kicked off from a tree branch and landed easily on the roof with perfect balance.

"Why do you feel the need to scare the crap out of me so much?" I scolded as he found a flat spot on top of where a window was.

"I guess I'm just addicted to your scream," he laughed, sitting down with me in his arms.

"Oh I'm so flattered," I remarked, but I couldn't help but smile at the whole situation in general.

We talked for a few minutes about random little half-topics that jumped arbitrarily to mind. I think the talking was just to keep me awake. Which probably would have been tricky otherwise considering the serene mood that filled the night air. It certainly wasn't nothing, but that was the most relaxing part; crickets chirping and the sounds of life only added to the comfort.

It was a beautiful night; the stars glistened brightly high above and a thin sliver of the moon was visible, glowing its silvery smile. It was fairly warm, but the evening breeze still blew goosebumps onto my bare arms, sending a shiver up my spine. Sonic laid down and put his arms around me and I folded mine so that one was around him and my other hand could be tucked safe and warmly into his.

"You're cold," he stated, holding me tighter.

"I'm glad you could tell."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just...it feels nice...to feel again," I sighed blissfully.

I know it should have been at least _slightly_ surprising, but when Sonic lightly kissed the top of my head, it only felt natural. The only surprising part was the spark of feeling that came when he did.

"Did you fell that?" he asked quietly, just before I was able to.

I looked up at him, slightly puzzled, and nodded. A smile crept onto his face and he leaned towards me again. His lips touched lightly against my cheek and, again, I felt-a little more presently-a spark of enjoyment. Another shiver crept up my sides, but this one was more of pleasure than cold. Like whispering aloud the final words of a beautiful story and the chilling happiness that accompanies it.

"What about that time?" now I was one the one to ask.

"That's not the same kind of shock you had before, right?" Sonic asked cautiously and I shook my head no.

With one final test in mind, I knew I had to try this before either of us backed out. I tilted my head up and pressed my lips against him, feeling a wonderful rush of energy with the contact. I was flooded with a wonderful luster and, if it were up to me, I never would have pulled away. But I ended it quickly, leaving it as just one amazingly energetic peck.

"Wow," Sonic whispered.

"You really felt it too?"

He nodded. "It doesn't hurt like before?"

"No; it's a different kind of energy or spark or something."

"Tell me how it's different," he asked.

"Well...for one thing I don't think it will ever be too much to handle. In fact, I don't know if there'll even be enough," I admitted.

"There will," Sonic said reassuringly, leaning back in with a deeper kiss.

He was right; I knew that before he even said it. Yes, it was intense and electric and filled with energy, but the difference is...love has no overload.

**Wow, sorry this took so long to update, but I kind of conjoined the last two chapters to give you a long one to make up for it. I got some AMAZING reviews on this story and I'm so thankful to all of my readers!**

**A shout out to:**

**Nickyy-my first reviewer on this story XD Thanks so much for following me this far with all my stories!**

**Aamypink-helped me out of a mini-funk when I thought all my readers hated me for the incredibly long hiatus**

**01SonAmy01-Really awesome; I'm not sure where the idea came from, but yeah, it's WAY different, lolz XD**

**And a very anonymous reviewer (no name)-Thank you so much! That's so nice and I hope to be more active on the sight now that I've got a laptop and can get some privacy with my writing :)**

**I really loved writing this story (as always) and I hope I carried out this idea to meet all of your expectations! I'll be back with another story (hopefully) very soon (the description to such can be found in my last fic, If You Seek Amy). Mostly it's just finding time to write and revising the original plot to meet my new ideas. Thanks so much and sorry for ruining that peaceful mood. Now to bring it back for reviews, I ask you all to please scroll up and read that last line again. Thanks a million everyone! :)**


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